Regular programme

African Odysseys – an update (26 March 2025)

Over 17 years ago African Odysseys was co-founded by the BFI and our community partners to celebrate and platform Pan-African cinema. The influence of African Odysseys can be felt across all BFI programme from showcasing Black British stories to promoting new African and African diaspora voices.

We would like to reassure our African Odysseys audience that despite some internal staff reorganisation, we do not want this programme to end. However, African Odysseys is programmed in partnership with an external Steering Group, and we have not yet been able to agree on a shared approach to managing it.

In the meantime, our in-house programmers and external advisors and partners continue to ensure that Black British, African, and African diaspora stories are platformed and celebrated across the BFI’s public programme. We are very grateful to the dedication of the Steering Group who have partnered with us to deliver the programme over the years. We will reserve a space in our monthly programme for African Odysseys to return.

Thank you for your continued support. It means a great deal to us.

Ben Roberts
Chief Executive
BFI

Experimenta

Convention-breaking artist film and alternative moving-image culture.

What Did You Eat Today? Rose Lowder + Q&A with the filmmakers William English and Sandra Cross

French-Peruvian filmmaker Rose Lowder prepares and eats a meal in the first of a series of beguiling films that trace the echoes of action in unexpected places.

Siticulosa + Maeve Brennan in conversation with art critic Isobel Harbison

Continuing her meticulous, image-led investigations of contested landscapes, and the events and people that make them, Maeve Brennan explores archaeological treasures in Puglia.

Film Wallahs

Showcasing new South Asian and world cinema, from documentary to drama

Calorie + intro and panel discussion

In the heat of a sweltering Indian summer, three generations of women collide in ways that will reshape their lives forever.

Projecting the Archive

Rediscovered British features from the BFI National Archive.

The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss (aka The Amazing Adventure) + intro by Charles Drazin, writer and film historian

In a rare British film appearance, Cary Grant is typically charismatic as a disaffected millionaire searching for meaning.

Projecting the Archive: Bryan Forbes at 100

Actor, writer, director, producer – few figures in British cinema have displayed so much talent across as many spheres as Bryan Forbes.

Projecting the Archive: Whistle Down the Wind + Q&A with actors Hayley Mills, Diane Poole and Alan Barnes

Hayley Mills stars in this this warmly humorous exploration of the secret world of children, set against a bleak northern winter.

Restored

Masterpieces and recent discoveries from around the world, newly restored.

UK Premiere of 4K Restoration: Letty Lynton + intro by Caroline Cassin, Women & Cocaine film curator

Joan Crawford’s most elusive film returns from cinematic exile in a stunning 4K restoration.

My Brother’s Wedding + pre-recorded intro by Charles Burnett

A classic of New Black Cinema, this is a vital portrait of a community at large directed by one of America’s great film artists with a strongly independent vision.

Seniors

Free and paid matinees, and talks for the over-60s.

Seniors’ Paid Matinee: Ish

A coming-of-age story for modern times, this powerful British debut explores the emotional cost of racism on our children.

Seniors’ Free Matinee: All About My Mother + intro

Pedro Almodóvar’s Oscar-winning masterpiece is a deeply moving, richly colourful tribute to motherhood, friendship and the families we create for ourselves.

Seniors’ Paid Matinee: Queen at Sea

A family is fractured around the care of a mother with advanced dementia, in this moving drama starring Juliette Binoche.

Seniors’ Free Matinee: Barcelona + intro by Ruby McGuigan, BFI Programme Development Manager

Whit Stillman’s sophisticated, endlessly entertaining comedy of manners pairs razor-sharp dialogue with transatlantic culture clashes.

Silent Cinema

Bringing you the best silent film from the BFI and around the world with live accompaniment.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed + panel discussion with musician Hugo Max and Lotte Reiniger scholar Tashi Petter

Lotte Reiniger’s strikingly beautiful film is an early animated classic and one not just aimed at a young audience.

Queen Kelly + intro by film critic and historian Pamela Hutchinson

Reimagining of Gloria Swanson’s Queen Kelly finally released, nearly 100 years late.

Woman with a Movie Camera

We celebrate women’s contribution to cinema and spotlight female stories.

Barbara Kopple Double Bill + intro by Dr Alice Pember

A double bill of Barbara Kopple’s gripping, Oscar-winning portraits of American workers fighting for dignity, survival and solidarity across two defining labour struggles.

Wildwood, NJ + Q&A with director Ruth Leitman

A loving snapshot and vivid time capsule documenting the lives of women in Jersey Shore’s prime summer spot during the 1990s.